Abstract This article presents the results of a comprehensive comparison of Targum Pseudo-Jonathan with Targum Onqelos and Targum Neofiti across the entire book of Deuteronomy. The findings highlight the synthesized nature of Targum Pseudo-Jonathan and provide substantial evidence that it was composed by interweaving Targum Onqelos with a version of the Palestinian Targum, similar to Targum Neofiti. The evidence suggests that the synthesis of these earlier targums was likely one of the author’s objectives. Furthermore, through a comparative analysis of the variations between the targums, this study explores the compositional methods employed by the author of Targum Pseudo-Jonathan and proposes a specific Sitz im Leben for this work.
This article deals with legal procedures in Deuteronomy of Targum PseudoJonathan. It argues, based on texts such as Deut. 1:17; 29:28; 19:15; and 21:1-9, that TgPsJ is specifically concerned with the problem of secret crimes and the cases where the testimony cannot be upheld by the sufficient number of witnesses. Compared to the Hebrew text of Deuteronomy, TgPsJ puts much greater emphasis on divine judgment (as opposed to strictly rational human judgment). Of the studied texts, Deut. 19:15 TgPsJ is most interesting for its systematic presentation of available judicial procedures according to the Targumist, while the passage in Deut. 21:1-9 TgPsJ presents a most vivid illustration of divine miraculous intervention in the judicial process, which perfectly reflects the Targumist's concern for the revelation of secret crimes.
Abstract The Roman-era city-state of Palmyra provides ample opportunity for the investigation of Aramaic onomastics and the reconstruction of elite lineages at the site. In this article, we trace the recently reconstructed family genealogy of a certain Barʿā (son of) Zabdʿatē. We demonstrate that the organization suggested by Fred Albertson is more likely than the reconstruction proposed by Palmira Piersimoni and yet remains chronologically viable. Further, we provide philological justification for Albertson’s deduction that tšbb , which has previously been understood as a personal name, is in fact an epithet meaning “the Younger, the Lesser.”
This article presents a transcription, translation, and analysis of an unpublished Syriac incantation bowl (B9002) housed in the Penn Museum. Although the text is faded, multispectral imaging facilitated its successful decipherment. B9002 is a valuable addition to the relatively limited corpus of published Syriac incantation bowls and stands out for its distinctive content in two key respects. First, the incantation text has no known parallel among existing Syriac bowls. Second, while other Syriac bowls occasionally incorporate formulas that appear to derive from scribal traditions of different confessional groups, B9002 is exceptional in that it preserves an almost verbatim copy of a formula found on several published Mandaic bowls—including another in the Penn Museum’s collection. This striking intertextual relationship invites new considerations of cultural and ritual interaction in Late Antiquity.
The two Biblical Aramaic passages in Daniel 3:2–3 and Ezra 4:9 preserve occupation-based gentilic nouns amid professional titles and population names based on toponyms according to the Masoretic vocalization. From a text-critical standpoint, the nonethnic labels with gentilic vocalization appear “corrupt” due to scribal errors. However, a philological solution offers an explanation that takes two different modes of interpretation into consideration. By elucidating the mechanism of classification embedded in the category of gentilics through the notion of relational adjectives in cross-linguistic data, this article revisits Franz Rosenthal’s remark that considers the Aramaic gentilic vocalizations of the Masoretic text to be errors due to their semantic deviance. It argues that the inclusion of nonethnic labels among other gentilics reflects a logic of classifying ancient identities that do not necessarily align with what is normalized as an ethnonym in taxonomic nomenclature. Simultaneously, a different interpretation emerged through a reanalysis of the loanwords.
